In the manufacture of paper products, such as facial tissues, bath tissues, napkins, wipes, paper towels, etc., it is often desired to optimize various properties of the products. For example, the products should have good bulk, a soft feel, and should have good strength. Unfortunately, however, when steps are taken to increase one property of the product, other characteristics of the product are often adversely affected.
For instance, it is very difficult to produce a high strength paper product that is also soft. In particular, strength is typically increased by the addition of certain strength or bonding agents to the product. Although the strength of the paper product is increased, various methods are often used to soften the product that can result in decreased fiber bonding. For example, chemical debonders can be utilized to reduce fiber bonding and thereby increase softness. Moreover, mechanical forces, such as creping or calendering, can also be utilized to increase softness.
However, reducing fiber bonding with a chemical debonder or through mechanical forces can adversely affect the strength of the paper product. For example, hydrogen bonds between adjacent fibers can be broken by such chemical debonders, as well as by mechanical forces of a papermaking process. Consequently, such debonding results in loosely bound fibers that extend from the surface of the tissue product. During processing and/or use, these loosely bound fibers can be freed from the tissue product, thereby creating lint, which is defined as individual airborne fibers and fiber fragments. Moreover, papermaking processes may also create zones of fibers that are poorly bound to each other but not to adjacent zones of fibers. As a result, during use, certain shear forces can liberate the weakly bound zones from the remaining fibers, thereby resulting in slough, i.e., bundles or pills on surfaces, such as skin or fabric. As such, the use of such debonders can often result in a much weaker paper product during use that exhibits substantial amounts of lint and slough. As such, a need currently exists for a paper product that is soft, yet strong enough to prevent sloughing. Moreover, there is a need for a product that can be produced without the excessive use of debonders.